Hopewit

"Wonder what the earth-people  are up to today?" said the Martian. So what do we think of these statements? Climate changes and natural catastrophes have wiped out the dinosaurs and numerous other animal and plant species over time. If history is predictive, homo sapiens will sooner or later arrive at a place where changes or catastrophes make their continued existence impossible, and we might well go the way of the dinosaurs. Climate change and environmental degradation are quite possibly the early stages of changes that will lead to human devolution,* mostly because humans appear incapable of collectively mustering the energy and commitment to do what they must to ensure a future for the species. We seem to be predominantly “eat drink and be merry for tomorrow we die” people, particularly in the over-developed parts of the world. The current, worrisome climate changes have clearly been hastened by CO 2 emissions resulting from years o...

"What are you doing, son?" "I'm packing some justice & mercy into a Canadian Tire pail. What does it look like I'm doing?"     Once upon a time, people would part with the words, “God be with ye.” But just like we now shorten our greeting when we meet from, “I wish you a good morning” to “Mornin!’,” “God be with ye” became “God by ye,” and finally, “Good bye.” The progression from “God” to “Good” is significant, and for many it may appear to be a backward step theologically. But let’s not get caught in the trap of having the definition of a word overrule our understanding of what GOODNESS (or GODNESS) is, or is meant to be. Words are servants to thought and imagination, not the other way ‘round. All scriptures, all religions since the beginning of human consciousness (I suspect) have had but two end goals, first, that GOOD shall prevail. That the harmony, the justice, the mercy and the generosity that constitute the everything o...

“ He will be a master of deception, defeating many by catching them off guard as they bask in false security. Without warning he will destroy them. So great will he fancy himself to be that he will even take on the Prince of Princes in battle; but in so doing he will seal his own doom, for he shall be broken by the hand of God, though no human means could overpower him.” (Daniel 8:25, the Living Bible) “ He will cause deceit to prosper, and he will consider himself superior. When they feel secure, he will destroy many and take his stand against the Prince of princes. Yet he will be destroyed, but not by human power.” (Daniel 8:25, New International Version) “ And through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many : he shall also stand up against the Prince of princes; but he shall be broken without hand.” (Daniel 8:25, King James Version) So here are three versions of ...

I'm not sure what artist and friend Jill Mitchell titled this work, but I call it, "I could be fifteen and walking down that road, dreaming!" Check out her amazing art at https://www.facebook.com/jillmitchelloriginalart Are you bothered by the seemingly insurmountable problem of achieving an Israeli/Palestinian peace? I know I am. For followers of Christ, both the source and the solution are head-scratchers. Our religion can be justifiably called a Jewish sect in that our very faith grows out of the revelation of—and the record of—interaction between Jewry and YHWH, the record of those revelations and events being vital parts of our Christian scriptures. In other words, we are unable to see the State of Israel, its establishment and survival as objectively as we can, for instance, the annexation of Crimea by Russia. The website of a Zionist organization called The Refiner’s Fire has posted 10 Old Testament prophecies fulfilled in the existence of modern-day ...

Paul’s letter to the church in Rome has the flavour of being directed to a particular issue in a particular group of people who apparently haven’t grasped an essential, pivotal point in his teaching ministry. Summed up, as he does in the last verse, the chapter reinforces quite dramatically that “ the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:23, NRSV) The forcefulness of his message to church-people suggests that having been baptized into the faith, Christians in Rome were continuing to live in the lifestyle of their culture, including aspects Paul clearly considers “sinful.” What exactly Paul considers “sinful” he delineates at other places in his letters (see Galatians 5:19, for instance) but I have no doubt that whether it has to do with sexual promiscuity, activities in the bath houses, questions of slave ownership and their treatment, economic practices for those in trade, the readers of Paul’s letter probably...

Batoche A man walks into a mosque during Friday prayers with an automatic weapon and clips of ammunition and commences emptying his weapon over and over into the crowd. He manages only about 100 dead and wounded but according to his manifesto, his deed falls well short of his intentions. Claiming, apparently, that his act was retaliation for acts of violence by Muslims in Europe, one may be left to wonder if the perpetrator saw himself as the Christian god’s avenger, or if he possibly fell into a recurring pattern so often connected to violence particularly by lone individuals, namely the feeling of worthlessness, of rejection sublimated in a fixation on a perceived enemy and the most “noticeable” act of violence against that enemy. The Holocaust should have taught us to watch for the signs that fixated hatreds can become epidemic in a population where unfairness and injustice are allowed to flourish. So far, the overwhelming rhetoric surrounding the New Zealand m...

San Antonio, Tlayacapan Catholic church, Jalisco, Mexico (Near Ajijic, Chapala) We were talking trends this morning , in technology, primarily, where the telephone quickly becomes the cell phone and . . . who-knows-what in the future. Where the calculator seems a breakthrough after the abacus and counting fingers but is made redundant in a fraction of a lifetime by the computer, which in turn grows in capability through rapidly-passing generations, etc., etc. I thought of family farms giving way to corporate farming to who-knows-how food will be synthesized in an imaginary future. We talked about Sophia, the robot who has so many human-like abilities that she’s been granted citizenship! And of course, crypto-currency, artificial intelligence, 5G communication capability and threats and . . . on and on until the fear of being submersed by developments we barely understand made us want to crawl under the bed with our thumbs in our mouths, cuddled under a blankey. We talk about ...